At the risk of making a sweeping statement, most chopper builders take themselves very seriously. For every Technicolor humorist like Rick Fairless, there are ten stony-faced Dyna bros posing by their bikes in the ubiquitous flannels, work shorts and Vans.
The fellas at Zambrag Garage in Bali don’t fit this mold. They usually build classic old school choppers with sissy bars, but scroll down their Instagram feed and you’ll see smiles and kids goofing off around the bikes.
We were smiling too, as soon as we clapped eyes on this fun little ride, which is essentially a blend of Honda Dax and Super Cub parts, with a side order of irreverence thrown in.
It’s called the ‘Lil’ Pussy chopper’ and was commissioned by a local client, Wayan Tigana [below].
Shop boss Zambrag Candra tells us it’s built around a 1996 Honda C100 engine—a bulletproof air-cooled single that should give a few more decades of trouble-free service.
Unfortunately Zambrag doesn’t speak much English and we don’t speak any Indonesian…but between us we managed to piece together a few details.
Working with two helpers in the garage, Zambrag wedged the engine into a modified Honda Dax frame. The middle of the frame is mostly stock, but the back is completely new and the garage has built a new fuel cell inside, topped off with a neat custom cap.
Rather than bolt on a set of extended forks, Zambrag and his crew have built a girder setup, terminated with a 17-inch rim from local maker TDR attached via a brakeless hub.
The bars were fabricated in-house, and tucked between the girder tubes is a yellow-lensed headlight that Zambrag picked up at the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show in Japan last year.
The back end is entirely handmade, with aftermarket struts hooked up to a 10-inch rim from an obscure, vintage two-stroke Suzuki car.
Braking is via a classic drum configuration and a custom-made white leather seat sits above. Even the taillight is hand crafted, made by a friend on the neighbouring island of Java.
The paint job is particularly bagus, and was executed by another friend of the shop, Solin.
A Honda Dax is an unlikely candidate for a chopper, but this one is the proverbial fresh of air. It puts us in mind of the Apple TV ad from the 90s: Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels.
We need more like this in these uncertain times.
Zambrag Garage Instagram | Images by Gede Arie Indra Guna
